Thursday, March 22, 2012

Thank-you notes can be powerful business tools. The sad thing is these notes are a lost art in today's hectic, technology-driven environment. Let's put it this way, the more than-you notes you send, the more people you'll have eating out of your hand.Think about it. Positive reinforcement goes a long way; and most people don't give (or get) much of it.On his lecture tour, management guru Tom Peters told the story of a retired 3M executive who was a stickler for expressing his appreciation. He described to Peters his retirement party. "Several people came up to me, one or two with tears in their eyes, and thanked me for a thank-you note, sometimes one I'd written 10 or 15 years before!"People don't forgot kindness. Who can you send a thank-you note to? Anyone and everyone. Employees, clients, prospective clients, anyone you appreciate. What about a phone call or email? Too easy. Writing a note demonstrates a level of effort, and it is permanent. And these letters must be handwritten. A two-line, largely unreadable scrawl beats a page spit out by the laser printer.-Ron Ameln, SBM